


legends in stone, deeds in ink

by CookieBlaze



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Gen Work, No Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2020-02-23 18:29:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18707554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CookieBlaze/pseuds/CookieBlaze
Summary: Sai can remember what life was like before he met Team Seven. He's pretty sure that he never wants to go back.





	1. Introspection

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dinner_sbd](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dinner_sbd/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Dreaming of Sunshine](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/53648) by Silver Queen. 

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> My legend is written in stone, but my deeds are written in ink. - Anthony T. Hincks

Sai draws. It is the only thing he thinks he loves and is allowed to keep. Assuming the emotions he has matches the definition he found in the dictionary. He’s not entirely sure it does. Most of the books describe love for a hobby as a non-combat, fun-filled, and/or relaxing activity. His drawings serve as his main tool of combat and while it is somewhat relaxing to sketch in noncombat settings, he’s not entirely sure he feels the emotions associated with ‘fun’.

His hand pauses momentarily as he considers the best way to draw orbs in hair. Unfortunately, he’s not sure what purpose it serves and it seems as if they are nothing more than decorations. Perhaps he could turn them into emergency bombs? If not, a storage for small utensils? However, it seems like an unnecessary risk to wear such heavy and easily snatched things in one's hair. He opts to eliminate them and draws in long, thin pins instead, with small beads hanging off them.

As he continues sketching out the heroine, he turns his mind back to the oddness that is Nara Shikako. She has a inordinate fondness for metaphors he doesn’t understand and while he is aware that powerful non-ROOT ninja have odd quirks, he would prefer if she wouldn’t use such long and confusing ones. Unfortunately, he cannot deny that they convey her points fairly clearly. Perhaps he should incorporate more metaphors in his interactions with non-Root personnel? After a moment, he dismisses the thought. It would most likely be more effective for the ROOT infiltration training.

A quick stroke across the paper. A slight curve towards the enemy in shadow, light barely illuminating the scene, as the kunai makes it way forward. The kunai is slightly elongated in the next panel, to show how quickly it is traveling. Sai shades in the shadows and then pauses once again. One of the heroine’s friends used fire but Shikako never specified how the fire appeared. Judging by what little she had told him, it seemed somewhat instinctual. Was it a bloodline limit? Perhaps he could frame it as a strong elemental affinity with little tutoring? That would make sense, as he was aware that Sasuke had not had much training before he graduated.

Nara Shikako is oddly sensitive to undercurrents. Sai acknowledges that part of it must have come from her background as a potential heir for the Nara. Some parts though, could only come from experience. She seems motivated by some unknown, unspoken fear. The kind that would only be spoken in the shadows, if at all. He does not mind if she doesn't tell him. After all, he also has secrets to keep. Most of them deadly, some that were not.

He shades in the dog, based off Shikako’s description of her sensei’s pug, making sure that the paws look smooth and soft.. Sai hopes that Shikako will approve of his change to the script, as he has not seen any nin-cats. The headband is looped around the dog’s neck, a stylized crescent moon and star centered in the metal. Carefully, he erases the stray markings then pauses. How silly of him, to almost forget the coat on it's back. The artist rapidly sketches out the article of clothing and then shades it in. A circle is drawn between the shoulders, filled with a simple shriken design as a placeholder until he finds something better to replace it.

Danzo-sama, while skeptical of his attempts to draw information out of Shikako, has allowed Sai to continue his attempts at gathering information from the target’s companions. It is helpful, in that he learns more about the target’s background that was not included in the scroll. He’s not quite sure if the file is correct, anyway. Such a drastic change was expected, generally after the first serious mission, but the degree of change in both skill and personality was unexpected.

He remembers the first time he met her, in the Hokage’s office. She had been facing him, scrutinizing him, with an unknown expression, and then turned to the the Hokage. At that point, his attention was focused on Naruto, his primary target. All of them had introduced themselves and she had inquired for further information on the team structure. On the way to the client, both of them had asked about his background and willingly given mostly useless tidbits in response. By the time they had stopped to camp for the night, Sai had answered an exhausting amount of questions, most of which he couldn’t, at the time, know the purpose of. It is at that point he remembers that Shikako shared her first metaphors. It was the first point he took interest in her as anything but a secondary target.

After that, more things began happening, one after another. Sai started to take interest in subjects not related to his targets. Take for example, what he was doing now. Before, he rarely drew for simply the sake of drawing something. Now, he had a plot, repeating characters and even multiple people to share and enjoy them with.

His hand stills as he finishes inking out the last flares of the explosive tag. Now, all he had to do was proofread for errors and check for any odd inconsistencies in his work. Hopefully, Kiba would be willing to help out again. Unfortunately, it was almost time to leave. Danzo-sama was calling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have zero experience with drawing beyond doodles. I tried to keep it vague but if anything is weird, let me know and I'll try to fix it.
> 
> To dinner_sbd: This didn't come out the way I intended but I hope you enjoyed this anyway.
> 
> Apologies to math-is-magic, for incorporating Danzo. 
> 
> Also, I would like to give thanks to the incredible Silver Queen, for writing an amazing fanfic, and wafflelate, for creating and modding this exchange.


	2. Threads

  _“Continue to observe and collect information on the Nara girl. The Senju will assign another C rank tomorrow. ”_

_“Understood, Danzo-sama.”_

_“Dismissed.”_

* * *

 “Sai!” Shikako called. “Over here!”

He wasn’t entirely sure why she was calling him over when there wasn’t a crowd but dismissed those concerns upon catching sight of their third teammate.

“Yo! Where’ve you been Sai? I’ve been looking for you,” exclaimed Kiba.

Sai promptly executed Scenario 23, with a slight modification to account for the Inuzuka’s network and sense of smell. He couldn't quite understand why, behind Akamaru, Shikako’s face twisted as she attempted what looked like the Heimlich maneuver on herself. Thankfully, she was recovered by the time another person approached the team.

“Sorry, I was delayed. You see, a little girl and her dog were playing and the dog splashed mud on my sandals, so I had to go back and change.”

Sai was certain that the look on Kiba’s face matched what he felt this time. Sometimes, it was difficult in matching feelings and expressions to words, but there was no doubt in his head this time.

“Whatcha doing here, Kakashi-sensei? It’s just a retrieval mission. Akamaru and me can handle that kind of thing in our sleep!”

The jonin sighed.”Well, you see, this and that happened and after a while, I decided to skip to the part where my cute little genin and her team were leaving.”

There was a moment of silence before Shikako nodded and declared, “So you ditched the hospital.”

The Copy-Nin shut his eye and curved both sides downward. According to the book Sai had purchased, this typically signified that the person was upset. The only problem with that was that his body language was far too relaxed.

While Sai was contemplating this, the other three humans and dog finished up their conservation and their team set forth to complete their mission.

It was a fairly simple mission. They made it to the town by night, interrogated the client the next morning, and had found the cat by the time it was late afternoon. Shikako’s metaphors had not yet appeared, which was disappointing, but Kiba was engrossed in reading Sai’s draft. Sai hoped that Shikako would look through it later as well. Hopefully, another metaphor would also pop up at some point, as he needed more supportive points in his improvement plan for ROOT trainees.

By the time it was dark, they were still over fours hours of travel remaining and Shikako, as the team leader, opted for them to camp out for the night instead of pushing their way back as they were in no rush.

If Sai had been on a Root mission, they wouldn’t have stopped. They were all in good condition, uninjured, and it was easier to enter the village at night anyway. The village was on higher alert at night, but there were fewer eyes around so as long as he was careful, they were fairly easy to avoid. Explaining the decision to delay to Danzo-sama as 'being tired' would simply result in either more training or retraining, whichever was necessary. By now though, he understood that those things did not apply to the ninja in the day.

“Sai, come here,” called Kiba. “How did you like the manga I told you about?”

A pause as Sai formulated an appropriate response. “It was… intriguing,” Sai settled on. “Unrealistic, as no civilian could have gained such power without being recruited but it was an interesting concept.”

As Sai and Kiba debated the merits and detriments of the manga, the conversation turned to Shikako and one of her Chunin Exam matches.

“And I’m telling you, she had no chakra, was going pure taijutsu and she still got the upper hand! Guess how she won, I bet you’ll never guess right,” Kiba boasted.

“Kunai? Failing that, I would suggest similar weaponry or a blow to multiple vital points?” Sai suggested.

“Nah. See, she was trying to get in close, activating explosive tags with her blood and faking him left and right. And then when they were close enough, she lunged, right? But then, she used her freakin’ braid to choke him! It was a total turnaround!”

Shikako blushed. “Kiba, it wasn’t that great! I mean, it was spur of the moment, it’s not like I planned it.”

“That just makes it even more awesome. I mean, you came up with that in a blink of an eye and his face! Man, I wish there wasn’t so much dirt thrown up so I could have seen it more clearly,” Kiba groaned.

Their conversation petered out soon after that, as the day’s activities caught up with them. Akamaru was the first to yawn, followed shortly afterwards by Kiba. Night shifts were quickly agreed upon, with Shikako taking first, Sai second, and leaving Kiba and Akamaru with the dawn shift.

Sai was nudged awake and quickly rolled out of his bedroll. Ink smudges covered Shikako’s fingers as she whispered, “All clear. I’m going to stay awake a little longer to finish something but I’ll go to sleep soon.” He nodded and jumped up to a branch.

Sometime later, Shikako jumped up as well. Together, they sat in silence. Then she spoke.

“Have you ever looked up and just watched the sky?” She asked.

“I have used it for navigation,” Sai responded.

Her mouth downturned slightly and she bit her lip. “No, I mean, have you ever just stared at it? Admired the view? If that’s not what you like, what do you do during your downtime?”

“There is little point in doing so. I prefer to research human interactions when I have time,” Sai said.

There was another pause as Shikako seemed to ponder something. Sai idly mused on whether or not she was going to come up with more metaphors.

“Imagine that ninjas start out as threads. The more trials we go through, the more thread is added. As we grow from it, we become more like ropes and we also get more taut, getting stretched further and harsher. This helps us get more flexible and we can adapt to unexpected situations. But if the rope is pulled too hard, it snaps, so the ropemakers have to let it rest so that it can still bend and hold up enough weight. In addition, ropes eventually wear down, so they have to be reinforced periodically or new ones have to be made. If ninjas don’t relax once in a while, they’ll eventually break down, due to exhaustion, injuries, stress and other factors.”

After a moment, Sai nodded to show her he understood. As soon as he did, Shikako slid off the branch and slipped into the empty bedroll.

Sai tilted his head up to stare up at the sky. He supposed that it looked peaceful, with stars glittering across the sky. Currently, there was a large cloud slowly making its way across the sky, half obscuring the moon. Despite that, he could still make out its shine behind the cloud, faint though it was. It would make for a good background, he thought.

Even as he had thought it, his hand reached for his sketchbook. He spent the rest of his shift filling multiple pages with the scenery above him and at the end, shook Kiba awake before turning in.

 _‘Perhaps I should make it a habit to look up more often,’_ was Sai’s last thought before his eyes slipped closed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone's wondering, the reason why Shikako approached Sai, if that seemed OOC , it is because she thought of Naruto and remembered that he tried his hardest to be friends with Sai. Since she's his friend as well, she might as well look after him too, as long as she doesn't reveal anything incriminating.


End file.
